Dang Khac Vy - rising bank owner VIBank

Vietnam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VIB) of the secretive businessman Dang Khac Vy (1968, from Nghe An) has just announced its business results for the third quarter and the first 9 months of 2023 with accumulated profit in the first 3 quarters reaching more than 8,300 billion VND, up 7% over the same period, in the top 10 banks with the highest profits in the system.

The majority of VIB's profits come from interest income. Its return on equity is 27%, the industry's top performance. In the fourth quarter, business results are likely to continue to be impressive as VIB is one of the banks with large credit room.

With the profit in 9 months, VIB is in the Top 10 highest profits among 28 banks that have announced financial reports for the first 9 months of 2023. VIBank's profit is even higher than that of VPBank (VPB) of Mr. Ngo Chi Dung - a credit institution with registered capital higher than the big commercial banks of state-owned origin.

We can visualize the scale of VIB's profits more clearly when we see that the Top 20 listed enterprises with the largest profits on the stock market are almost exclusively the playground of banks, with half of the organizations participating.

Mr. Vy, like many other tycoons who started their businesses in Eastern Europe, returned to Vietnam to do business. He currently holds more than 4.9% of VIB's capital, while his wife holds more than 4.9%. There was a time when Mr. Vy's family's share in VIB was much higher, but this share later changed due to a restructuring of the bank.

In July-August 2023, the son of VIB Chairman - Dang Quang Tuan successfully sold more than 12.7 million VIB shares (equivalent to 4.9%). Meanwhile, Funderra JSC, an organization related to Mr. Dang Khac Vy, also registered to buy 124.7 million VIB shares.

Mr. Vy and his wife and children hold VIB shares currently worth nearly 7,000 billion VND.

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Mr. Dang Khac Vy, Chairman of VIB. (Photo: DV)

Mr. Vy currently holds the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors of VIB Bank, term IX (2023 - 2027).

Despite good business results, VIB shares recently fell sharply in October 2023, causing Chairman Dang Khac Vy's family assets to decrease by thousands of billions of VND over the past year.

Besides Mr. Vy, at VIB there is also another secretive businessman, Dang Van Son, who has been the Vice Chairman of VIB for more than a decade. Uniben (owner of 3 Mien noodles) used to be a shareholder holding more than 4.8% of VIB shares. This is a business that was once related to Mr. Son and Mr. Vy's brother.

A decade of "changing thrones"

In the banking sector, Mr. Dang Khac Vy has been widely known since 2013. In mid-September 2013, VIB Bank rearranged its senior personnel with the highlight being Mr. Dang Khac Vy taking the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors to replace Mr. Han Ngoc Vu.

In fact, Mr. Vy is a founding shareholder with a large ownership ratio, who has been with VIB for decades and laid the foundation for it. However, 2013 is probably the year that this secretive boss from Eastern Europe wants to mark the next strategic development phase for this empire.

At that time, Mr. Dang Khac Vy and his wife held up to 18.6% of VIB shares, much higher than Mr. Han Ngoc Vu's family. Mr. Vu and his family held less than 0.4% of shares.

Also over the past decade, except for foreign shareholder Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Mr. Vy has always had the highest ownership ratio and correspondingly great power at this bank.

Mr. Dang Khac Vy is a doctor of economics and has worked for many years in Russia, Singapore... and was once famous for his instant noodle business in Russia and fiercely competed with Masan's instant noodle products.

Mr. Vy is also known as the founding member and Chairman of Mareven Food Holding Limited - a leading food and consumer goods manufacturer in Eastern and Western European markets.

However, in contrast to the fame of many entrepreneurs from Eastern Europe such as Mr. Pham Nhat Vuong, Mr. Ho Hung Anh, Mr. Nguyen Dang Quang, Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao..., Mr. Dang Khac Vy has remained quite secretive since then until now.

However, with the overwhelming ownership ratio in a bank and the impressive rise of VIB in the past few years, Mr. Dang Khac Vy's name has recently been mentioned more often.

In recent years, the rise of the 3 Mien noodle brand, Reeva noodle... of Uniben (VIB's shareholder) is said to be associated with the top leadership group of VIB because they used to have capital from this bank.

Previously, investors also knew many Vietnamese businessmen who started their businesses in Eastern Europe, including Russia and Ukraine, such as billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao and her husband, Nguyen Dang Quang and Ho Hung Anh. Vuong, Thao and Hung Anh are currently USD billionaires according to Forbes. Nguyen Dang Quang has just left this list.

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